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Remember Rutabaga Kukko we blogged about couple of years ago? Here’s another version of kukko, this time it’s filled with mixed root vegetables. You can have fresh kukko for breakfast if you bake it the night before and simmer it wrapped in towel overnight.

Rutabaga Kukko

Peel the root vegetables and slice thinly. Put them, water and some salt to a pot and simmer until half done. Drain

Mix the dough ingredients in a bowl. Roll into a circle or oval, edges can be thinner. Sprinkle the rice in the center of the circle/oval, it will absorb all the extra moisture. Put some root vegeatble slices on the dough, sprinkle with salt and put few dollops of margarine on top. Continue until you have all the root vegetables on the dough. Put more margarine dollops on top. Fold the edges of the dough on top of the pie. Close tightly, water and gentle rubbing will help.

Bake in 200 Celsius degrees 1-1,5 hours. Brush with mixture of melted margarine and water. Wrap in greaseproof paper and then wrap in a towel. You can then either wrap it in a blanket or put back to oven if it has cooled to 100 or less degrees. Keep wrapped at least couple of hours, but over night is better. This simmering part is important, it makes the crust softer and enhances the flavours of the filling.

You have a bunch of beans and some extra time to wait for the food to cook – it’s bean stew time. Bean stews are wonderful slowfoods, being easily varied into different cuisines by just playing around with the ingredients and some spices.

Few weeks ago Nomad was talking about a creamy bean stew, and couple of days later I made a stew using beans, potatoes, carrots, tomato passata and oat cream. It was good, but we felt it could be better. And here’s the improved version of the creamy bean stew: no potatoes this time, but bell pepper and celery instead.

Chop the onion and garlic. Cut the bell pepper in bite size chunks. Slice celery and carrots. If you have a pot that can be used both on stove top and in oven use it, use a sauce pan or any pot. Heat the oil in your pot and fry cumin, garam masala and paprika about 20 seconds. Add onions and fry couple of minutes. Add celery, bell pepper, carrot and garlic and continue frying for few minutes. Add tomato, beans, basil, thyme and enough water to barely cover everything. Put your pot into oven (or transfer the mixture into an oven proof dish) and bake 2-3 hours in 175 Celsius degrees. Add more water during the baking if needed. Add cream and season with salt and pepper. Bake while you cook the rice.

Soup is often served as a starter, but in Finland it’s usually the main course. According to what I’ve read recently, in Trinidad soup is served as a main course too. Trinidad Corn Soup is filled with peas and vegetables, and you won’t miss a main dish after eating this. I read many recipes and made my version based on them. They all included corn, split peas, corn dumplings, chili pepper and carrots. Potatoes and coconut milk also seem to be popular ingredients. Sweet potatoes and chickpeas can be used too.

The soup is usually made with sliced corn ears, but barbecue season is over and whole corns weren’t available anymore, so we used canned baby corn instead. If you have fresh corn ears, slice them and add to the pot at the same time with dumplings.

Soak the split peas overnight. Rinse.
Peel and chop the onion and garlic, chop celery. Heat the oil in pot and sauté onion, garlic and celery until onion is soft. Add 1,5 l water and bring to boil. Meanwhile peel and dice the carrot, and chop both peppers. When water is boiling, add peas, chopped vegetables and herbs. Simmer about an hour or until peas are soft. Use a handheld blender to puree the soup. You can puree it completely smooth or leave it chunky.

Make the dumplings: Mix cornmeal and water together to get a thick dough. Add bit more either ingredient if needed. Form into small balls. Season the soup with salt and pepper and add dumplings. Simmer 10-15 minutes and add both corns. Simmer 10 more minutes, adjust seasoning and enjoy.

We found this recipe and decided to try it. It was quite basic cabbage salad, but more vinegary than I’ve made before. We refrigerated the leftovers and had them for lunch next day, and the flavour of chili pepper had grown much stronger. Keep that in mind if you prefer milder chili taste and want to make the salad hours before serving.

Ensalada Repollo

Shred the cabbage. Peel and coarsely grate the carrot. Put them in a bowl, add boiling water and let sit 5 minutes. Drain well and squeeze out excess water. Chop the tomatoes and onion. Finely chop the chili pepper Combine all the ingredients and allow to marinade an hour or two. Serve chilled.

Strudel is a roll shaped pie, which is typical in Eastern Europe, but also in Germany and Austria. The filling can be sweet or savoury. This savoury strudel recipe is from Linda Majzlik’s A Vegan Taste of Eastern Europe, and I promise this is the last recipe we’re posting from it. The recipe is for 300 g filo pastry, but we found only 450 g packages from the store, so I made a little more filling and made a bigger pie. A big slice of this strudel with salad is enough for dinner, and smaller slice is a nice snack or party food.

Mix the textured soy protein, broth powder and water together and let soak 20 minutes. Peel and grate the carrots and turnips. Chop the tomatoes and bell peppers, you can also scald tomatoes if you prefer. Peel and chop onion and garlic. Thinly slice the celery. Heat the oil in a big pan and fry onion, garlic and celery until soft. Add soaked soy protein and all the remaining liquid to the pan, and add all the rest of the filling ingredients. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring frequently, and allow to cool.

Cut the filo sheets in half. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put a half filo sheet on it, lightly brush with oil, put another filo sheet on it, and continue until you’ve used 1/4 of filo pastry. Spread a third of the filling on the pastry, but not to the edges. Repeat twice and put rest of the filo pastry sheet on top, brushing with oil between layers. Tuck the pastry edges under the strudel. Brush the top with oil and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake in 180 Celsius degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

This one is a great and simple salad. It possibly originates from the area of Häme in Finland, from where it spread to other parts of country. It is made from simple ingredients, and nowadays mostly eaten at Yule time, but in the centuries past, it was likely a much more common salad, as in some parts of Finland it was called sallatti (literally “salad” in english) instead of rosolli. The original recipe called for herring and whatever, but we naturally skipped them entirely, as it represents just one of the million variations of this salad.

In the 1920’s the vegetable selection here in the north was very narrow, especially in the winter. Root vegetables and cabbage kept good in the cellar even in the winter, but cauliflower, green beans etc. were summer food. And people probably hadn’t even heard about sweet potatoes, eggplant, mangos or other exotic things. That’s why the recipes in the books include a lot of carrots, rutabaga, cabbage, potatoes and parsnip. Today’s recipe is made with carrots. We had the sauce with mashed potatoes and browned cabbage, but it goes well with patties too.

Carrot Sauce

Boil the carrots with salt and sugar until tender. Add margarine and dried parsley. Mix the wheat flour with small amount of water and stir in to the sauce. Bring to boil and simmer 10 minutes. Add fresh parsley and serve.